RB Leipzig start the new season in the Champions League with a success. However, the Bundesliga team’s victory in Switzerland also poses a riddle in the meantime.
Dream start, disillusionment – and then redemption: Xaver Schlager and Benjamin Sesko gave RB Leipzig a successful start to the Champions League despite a puzzling drop in performance.
The Austrian (73rd minute) provided the turnaround in the 3:1 (1-1) at outsiders Young Boys Bern, Benjamin Sesko (90.+3) scored the late winning goal. Mohamed Simakan (3rd) had given the Saxons a perfect start. But in front of 31,500 spectators at the sold-out Wankdorfstadion, Bern had equalised through Meschack Elia (33rd). The win on artificial turf means that Leipzig are now less under pressure on matchday two against defending champions Manchester City than they would have been if they had lost by a point.
Leipzig started as if they couldn’t wait to get back to the top flight. New signing Loïs Openda had the first good chance after just over 30 seconds, but his shot hit the outside of the net. Just two minutes later, Simakan headed in David Raum’s corner and into the far corner. Bern’s goalkeeper Anthony Racioppi looked anything but good.
Everything was actually going according to plan for the guests. Actually – because after the clear playful superiority at the start of the game, the Leipzigers suddenly stopped. Instead of continuing to combine forward quickly, they almost only played long balls. All precision was lost in the switching. Rose noticed this on the sidelines and complained loudly about his team’s bad passes. But it did not help. Elia scored for the Swiss, who were getting better and better, with a pike into the far corner.
With RB’s puzzling collapse, the stadium was also getting louder. Former Bundesliga professional Raphael Wicky had led Bern to championship and cup victory last summer – and the spectators were correspondingly enthusiastic as they cheered on the club’s third appearance in the group stage of the Champions League. In this phase, the game was played almost exclusively in the half of the increasingly passive Leipzig team.
Why RB was so out of sorts was probably not only a mystery to Rose. Even after the change of ends, there was hardly anything from his team. The only hope for a turnaround came from a controversial scene in the home side’s penalty area. A few minutes after the break, Xavi Simons was brought down after a duel with Racioppi, but the referee initially decided to play on. Then he looked at the scene on the screen: But because Xavi had actively sought contact with the goalkeeper’s foot, there was no penalty.
Nevertheless, the Bundesliga team got back into the game better after that. After another strong cross from Raum, Openda only had to head into the goal from close range – but failed to beat Racioppi. Shortly afterwards, substitute Benjamin Sesko (67th) scored with his head after another Raum cross – but he was just offside. Leipzig now came back into the game better and better, also because Bern seemed to run out of steam. Schlager took advantage of the increasing passivity of the Swiss and shot into the far corner from 18 metres.
Leipzig now dominated the game, which at least helped Timo Werner to a brief appearance. The out-of-form international striker came on for Openda in the 88th minute. Shortly afterwards, Sesko scored the final goal.